CAS, CDGS, wikis... and teaching resources Matija Lokar, Faculty of mathematics and physics University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

ICT and teaching process UNESCO study (2005) ICT potentially offers numerous advantage and provides opportunities for: –facilitating learning for children who have different learning styles and abilities, –making learning more effective, and –providing a broader international context for approaching problems as well as being more sensitive response to local needs.

ICT and teachers ICT enables teachers to save time and increase productivity in: –preparing and updating daily lessons; –plans, making hard copy visualisations and handouts for classes, as well as individualised educational plans for slower students and students with disabilities or with special problems; –presenting visual/oral content materials, tasks, and questions to the audience; –maintaining grade books; –compiling a data bank of exam questions; –online inspection and correction of students’ work on their computers;

ICT impact review (2006) Use of ICT in education has been priority in most European countries during last decade (or at least it is said so in official policies) Progress has been uneven Small percentage of schools have embedded ICT into the curriculum, demonstrating effective and appropriate ICT use Most schools are in early phase of ICT adoption –Uncoordinated provision and use

Points about teaching math ICT impacts positively on educational performance in primary schools, particular in English and less so on science and not in mathematics. there is a positive association between the length of time of ICT use and students’ performance in PISA mathematics tests. Schools with higher levels of e-maturity demonstrate a more rapid increase in performance scores than those with lower levels. Schools with good ICT resources achieve better results than those that are poorly equipped.

Use or not Political issue Technology is here! Ask teachers Year 2000: all secondary school math teachers –Approximately 1/3 strongly against CAS in teaching math –Follow up survey scheduled this year Not performed, probably increase between those against!

Teaching resources One of the main concerns “Give us appropriate materials and we will be probably convinced”

Interviews with teachers Electronic teaching materials (ETM) often offer too much guidance without the possibility of turning this function off or to fine tune it according to the teachers’ or learners’ needs. Lack of suitable ETM Dubious quality of some of the teaching materials, Too demanding ways of adapting the materials lack of proper classification of the materials –Problems with searches

Modifying ETRs Too many / not enough resources Problems with quality –Quality assesment also through peer evaluation Modifying the resources –Closed form solutions are not popular –To adapt the ETR to teacher’s style, age of students, cultural background...

“Best” resources Small –they can be easily combined Simple –Easily to understand Easily adaptable –Proper licencing model –Suitable and simple tools Equiped with teachers opinions –Show us “real” ways of use Easily accessible –Web

Web 2 Social software –Blogs, wikis, RSS feeds –Podcasting, videoblogs... Sites: Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, Wikipedia... To develope Web content collaboratively

Wiki In short: a wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, and edit content A wiki is a type of website that allows users to easily add, remove, or otherwise edit all content, very quickly and easily, sometimes without the need for registration. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative writing. The term wiki can also refer to the collaborative software itself (wiki engine) that facilitates the operation of such a website (see wiki software), or to certain specific wiki sites,

Properties of wiki site Anyone can change anything Processes of reading and editing are combined Edit link: instant revisions simplified hypertext markup Content is ego-less, time-less, and never finished Anonymity is not required but is common Multiple contributors to a page in a constant state of flux

Wikis and ETR wikis offer a very convenient way for distribution and collection of such materials. wiki encourages participation of all users. it invites the teachers to become truly involved in the materials they use, they can modify and improve the course materials on their own.

Some facts Teachers want simple ETMs than can be easily changed Using ETM bring new ideas, ways of modifications and adaptation of existing resources substantiality of material repositories - achieved through community We have a very good and simple collaborative tool – wiki

CAS / CDGS resources Wiki... in early development phase

ETR wiki Various free resources regarding teaching math with CAS / CDGS... Search capabilities / indexes MediaWiki: categories Easily maintained, easily changed, hierarhicaly sorted

Categories Sort of resource –Lab exercises, assesment, usage guides... Topics –Functions, graphs, equations... Type of resource –Worksheets, repetition tasks... Type of school –Primary, secondary, vocational, gymnasium, school year Programs –Mathematica, Derive, Cabri Geometre...

Some design decisions Program idependency (if possible) –With links to certain program instructions –Easly added new programs –Links to “complete resources” Subpages with “good practise examples” Completely open first time –“quality seal” afterwards if necessary

“I have been really surprised when I unintentionally discovered this wiki. I think it is a great idea. How often I notice a mistake in the worksheet I got. I would like to correct it to add a bit of additional value, but ing the author (if it is known at all) … Here I just click and correct the mistake. Great. I really hope more resources would be available this way!”